The present disclosure relates to an embroidery data creation apparatus for an embroidery sewing machine and embroidery data creation program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium.
Conventionally, there have been known embroidery sewing machines equipped with a function to embroider a plurality of unit patterns, each of which is made up of a character or a symbol such as an alphabetic character or numeral. In some of these embroidery sewing machines, it has been possible to either manually or automatically set thread-cutting operations of whether to cut a thread between the unit patterns, or whether the thread-cutting operation is to be performed or not. If they are specified manually, an operator would specify the setting by manual entry considering a finish of embroidery and a working efficiency.
As for an embroidery sewing machine which sets thread-cutting operation automatically, a name embroidery data creation apparatus has been proposed, which automatically determines whether to cut the thread between characters based on, for example, information of a typeface of characters (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2001-17758). Further, an embroidery data creation apparatus and an embroidery data creation storage medium have been proposed which automatically specify inter-character thread-cutting setting correlated with character attributes such as a character type, a character typeface, a character size, and upper case/lower case of characters (e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Publication No. 2003-265876).
However, in a conventional embroidery sewing machine to which thread-cutting settings are entered manually, the operator needs to specify the settings considering a delicate embroidery finish and attributes such as a typeface and a size of unit patterns, thus resulting in a problem of a poor working efficiency. There has been another problem that the operator might make a mistake in determining whether thread-cutting operation is to be performed or not, or forget to specify the settings.
On the other hand, in a conventional name embroidery data creation apparatus that automatically specifies setting of thread-cutting in accordance with information of a typeface of characters, a working efficiency has been improved as compared to the case of manual setting. However, since thread-cutting settings would be specified uniformly in accordance with a typeface, thread might be cut when unit patterns are overlapped with each other and thus it is not necessary. This leads to problems of complicated thread disposal and excessive time taken for sewing.
Further, in a conventional embroidery data creation apparatus and embroidery data creation program that automatically specifies setting of thread-cutting in accordance with character attributes, the conditions can be specified finely in accordance with character attributes. However, it is necessary for the operator to create and modify information required to automatically specify the settings of thread-cutting for each of character attributes, with full knowledge of characteristics of a typeface. This has lead to a problem that significant time and labor is required.